ISLAMABAD: The country’s top military official on Tuesday said Pakistan could augment its nuclear capabilities to keep deterrence intact in view of threats to the region’s strategic stability from India’s hostile posture.

“Pakistan’s credible minimum deterrence will remain dynamic to match the current level of overall strategic threat. Pakistan will do all it can to maintain strategic balance,” Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee Gen Zubair Hayat said while speaking at a seminar on “Regional Dynamics and Strategic Concerns in South Asia” organised by the Islama­bad Policy Research Institute (IPRI).

Gen Hayat’s speech in which he touched upon the nature and extent of threat from India could be best described as a reiteration of policy position. However, his statement assumed special significance in view of growing tensions with India.

“India is playing with fire,” Gen Hayat asserted.

Importantly, Army Chief Gen Qamar Bajwa, while speaking to troops at Mangla corps on Tuesday, also talked about “perpetual conventional threat”.

Strategic stability, he said, was being threatened by Indian Cold Start and Pro-Active Doctrines, development of anti-ballistic missile systems, and nuclearisation of Indian Ocean. West’s discriminatory nuclear politics, he underscored, was also undermining strategic stability.

Speaking about India’s sponsorship of terrorist activities in Pakistan, Gen Hayat said it was “wishful thinking” on part of Indians to “find space for application of force in the realm of sub-conventional war”. He warned that Indian actions could trigger a “larger conflict”.

Nukes are often cited as deterrent to all-out war and the Pakistani military calls its arsenal as weapons of peace. But it is feared that India’s hostile actions could push the region towards a nuclear standoff.

Gen Hayat was re-emphasising those dangers. India, he pointed out, was sponsoring Tehree­k-i-Taliban Pakis­tan, Baloch insurgents and sub-nationalists and other terrorist outfits for subversive activities in Pakistan. Special cells had also been set up in Indian intelligence agency RAW for Balochis­tan and the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) with huge financial allocations, he said, adding that All India Radio and Indian websites had launched services in local language to target people living in Balochistan.

Gen Hayat also outlined the reasons for extremism and terrorism in South Asia, saying those were because of the unresolved Kashmir issue and conflict in Afghanistan. “Road to peace on South Asia goes through Kashmir. There is no bypass,” the general said, while underscoring the need for resolving the longstanding dispute for sustainable peace in the region.

Speaking at the seminar, Senate Defence Committee chairman Mushahid Hussain said India had failed in its design to isolate Pakistan. “Pakistan is now the hub of new wave of regionalism of which CPEC is the centerpiece,” he said.

IPRI president Amb Abdul Basit said Pakistan understood the importance of good relations with all its neighbours for realising its economic potential and succeeding in its development agenda. “We are trying our best to help achieve reconciliation in Afghanistan, and are also open to a sustained and meaningful dialogue with India with a view of resolving all the bilateral issues, especially the Jammu and Kashmir dispute,” he said.

Published in Dawn, November 15th, 2017